President Barack Obama on Air Force One en route to giving the commencement address at Arizona State University, May 13, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
At The Federalist, Mollie Hemingway reminds readers of Barack Obama’s less than stellar foreign policy record. She wonders why everyone is so quiet about the former president’s many failures. She writes (abridged):
President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign was built on the claim that he was not just tough on terrorists, but also he was successful in fighting them.
Throughout the 2012 campaign, Obama described al Qaeda as being “on the path to defeat” or “decimated.” One media outlet counted 32 instances of him saying this even after the al Qaeda-linked attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.
At a campaign stop in Colorado, he said, “Four years ago, I promised to end the war in Iraq — and we did. I said we’d wind down the war in Afghanistan — and we are. And while a new tower rises above the New York skyline, al Qaeda is on the path to defeat.
A seven-minute video that made the case for re-electing Obama includes the now-even-more-outlandish promise that 32 million uninsured Americans would be covered under Obamacare by 2016, along with various other domestic claims. The foreign policy section touted an Obama speech where he said, “and now the war in Iraq is over,” and “for nearly nine years, our nation has been at war in Iraq. As your Commander-in-Chief and on behalf of a grateful nation, I’m finally proud to say these two words, ‘Welcome home.’” Graphics that read, “Iraq War Ended,” and “Libya Liberated” flashed across the screen.
The media carried the message forward. Al Qaeda was on the run. When the GOP presidential nominee talked about Russia being a major geopolitical threat, Obama chided him: “The 1980s are calling, they want their foreign policy back.” Snap! Zing! The media loved it. They bought the claim that Benghazi was not an orchestrated, successful, Islamist terror attack so much as a very good reason to re-evaluate the First Amendment in the U.S. They bought the Sunday morning show talking points and carried the candidate to victory.
Shortly after ISIS’ horrifically deadly attack throughout Paris a month ago, Obama responded to concerns about terrorists exploiting refugee and immigration paths to entry to the U.S. In an odd press conference in the immediate aftermath of Paris, the president sounded detached and disinterested, except when he mocked Republicans for expressing such concern.
Read more here.
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